Month & Year in Review: December 2017

I was sick pretty much all of December. Came down with bronchitis and a sinus infection around the 8th that held on until Dec 26th where I felt pretty damn good for one day before becoming infected with influenza A. I was stupid and didn’t think I felt all that bad and went on my Chicago trip to see Wicked and drove home through a snow storm. The stress of that ended up knocking me on my ass and I ended up with a 103-degree fever and had to venture out in the storm again to go to the Urgent Care clinic 40 miles away for the second time that month. Sorry, I’ve been longing to bitch about that all day and I’ve given up Facebook for 2018. In December I once again listened to more books than read because it was too hard to focus on written words. I’m surprised that I managed to finish six books this month! Sure two were short but two of those audiobooks were quite long. Two reread and two review books too.

Looking Back Year:

I managed to read 11 more books than I did last year. I’m going to call that progress. I have learned that I simply don’t want to read as much as I think I should. I need to give up the idea that I am going to read over 100 books a year anymore. I simply don’t have the time to devote to it and would like to pursue my other interests as well. I still want to run this blog and share my reviews but I’m comfortable with two scheduled weekly posts and reviews as they come. I’m not interested in challenges or pushing to grow fast. I will go with a popular Iowa movie phrase “If you build it they will come”. I will continue to produce content I am comfortable with and the audience that is happy with that will find me. This is a hobby after all.

Looking Ahead:

I’m going to continue with my 52 book challenge on Goodreads. One book a week is fair and quite frankly far more than the vast majority of Americans read anyway. I will probably end up reading more because I hit 52 around June and started to slack off quite a bit. I would love it if I could hit 88 or more books because that would be about the same increase that I saw this year. I would love to bring you more giveaways when I can but quite frankly I don’t see the participation numbers to make it worth while. I will be open to hosting blog tours with publishers and if they send me items to giveaway then I will be happy to do that. I’m going to continue to decline most unsolicited review requests, not that I get that many anymore. I’m too much of a mood reader and most of the authors contacting me are sending me titles that are nowhere near my reading taste anyway. I’m still a reader but I’m also an adult and have personal responsibilities. I also have stress and am finding that the stress kills my interest to read, I rather veg in front of YouTube while stressed. I hope this hasn’t chased you all off because I plan on sticking around, just not innovating much. If you enjoy what I’ve brought you this year than expect pretty much the same for 2018. I hope I can at least make you smile from time to time… Happy 2018!